PESHAWAR: A suicide bomber killed four women on Monday in an attempted attack on mourners at a funeral, police said.

The blast hit a house in Peshawar, close to where a group of people were holding funeral prayers, senior police official Najeebur Rehman told AFP. According to Rehman, the mourners spotted three would-be suicide bombers coming towards them but managed to scare them off. Two fled the scene while the third entered a nearby home, unconnected to the mourners, and blew himself up at the entrance, said Rehman.

"Four women died and six people were wounded in the suicide blast," he said. Shafqat Malik, chief of Peshawar's Bomb Disposal Unit, confirmed the suicide attack and told AFP that the bomber used around six kilogrammes of explosives along with ball bearings in his suicide vest. Jamil Shah, a spokesman for the Lady Reading hospital where all the dead bodies and injured were taken, told AFP that five of the injured were women. "Three wounded are still being treated while three were discharged," he said in a press statement.

The police was raiding Garhi Essakhel suburb of Peshawar for "suspicious persons" when the blast took place. "During the operation a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near the house," Senior Superintendent of Police (Operations) Najeeb told newsmen. It was the second suicide attack since the government and Taliban negotiating teams started talks over the issue of peace and terrorism.

The first suicide attack had targeted a hotel in famous Qissa Khawani bazaar, frequented by visitors from Parachinar. Local residents told the police that Quran khawani was being held when the bomber struck. The police are unsure whether the bomber's target was the people taking part in the Quran khawani or the funeral taking place in a nearby graveyard. Meanwhile, gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead three school teachers in Kach Banda area of Hangu District.

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